Greek frigate to join Prosperity Guardian
Defense Minister Nikos Dendias announced Greece’s participation with a Hellenic Navy frigate in the multinational Operation Prosperity Guardian, for the protection of merchant ships, the lives of seafarers and the global economy.
Greece’s participation in the international force under the auspices of the US was decided at the highest level by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as it was considered that as a country with the largest shipping industry in the world, it would be inappropriate to be absent from a project to protect free and safe navigation.
“Greece, the country with the largest naval fleet, has a primary interest in preserving the freedom of the sea lanes and the protection of seafarers’ lives,” Dendias said.
“It goes without saying that the frigate, which will participate in the operation, has the necessary means of self-protection,” he added, while government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis later said that, “in short, our country could not be absent from such an important operation.”
The presence of the Naval Staff in Bahrain, where the base of the operation to secure safe passage will be located, is the immediate next step. It will be decided there what type of mission Greece will undertake. An operation of this magnitude will include multiple stages, including the escort and security of commerce ships of various types from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and then to the Indian Ocean. As a result, the Navy’s mission will determine whether it will ultimately send MEKO frigates or, in the case of deployment in the rear, one of the older S-class frigates.
SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis derided the move, referring to Greece’s participation in an operation conducted at the “initiative of the willing,” while communist party KKE noted in a statement that “Greek ships or other military units have no business in missions that have nothing to do with the defense of the country and the protection of its borders.”
